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DARPA Invests $100 Million In a Silicon Compiler (eetimes.com)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will invest $100 million into two research programs over the next four years to create the equivalent of a silicon compiler aimed at significantly lowering the barriers to design chips. "The two programs are just part of the Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) expected to receive $1.5 billion over the next five years to drive the U.S. electronics industry forward," reports EE Times. "ERI will disclose details of its other programs at an event in Silicon Valley in late July." From the report: Congress recently added $150 million per year to ERI's funding. The initiative, managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), announced on Monday that the July event will also include workshops to brainstorm ideas for future research programs in five areas ranging from artificial intelligence to photonics. With $100 million in finding, the IDEAS and POSH programs represent "one of the biggest EDA research programs ever," said Andreas Olofsson, who manages the two programs.
Together, they aim to combat the growing complexity and cost of designing chips, now approaching $500 million for a bleeding-edge SoC. Essentially, POSH aims to create an open-source library of silicon blocks, and IDEAS hopes to spawn a variety of open-source and commercial tools to automate testing of those blocks and knitting them into SoCs and printed circuit boards. If successful, the programs "will change the economics of the industry," enabling companies to design in relatively low-volume chips that would be prohibitive today. It could also open a door for designers working under secure regimes in the government to make their own SoCs targeting nanosecond latencies that are not commercially viable, said Olofsson.
Together, they aim to combat the growing complexity and cost of designing chips, now approaching $500 million for a bleeding-edge SoC. Essentially, POSH aims to create an open-source library of silicon blocks, and IDEAS hopes to spawn a variety of open-source and commercial tools to automate testing of those blocks and knitting them into SoCs and printed circuit boards. If successful, the programs "will change the economics of the industry," enabling companies to design in relatively low-volume chips that would be prohibitive today. It could also open a door for designers working under secure regimes in the government to make their own SoCs targeting nanosecond latencies that are not commercially viable, said Olofsson.
That makes sense if you look at the commercial chip design market. The process is error prone and expensive.
It makes a hell of a lot less sense if you look at some other people busy in the space. Like how Chuck Moore does his chip designs with a "silicon compiler" written by a single person. Meaning that DARPA could have effective chip design tools for as little as a hundred thousand dollars, iff they manage to find the right person to build it for them. Software design is funny like that, and we haven't started to scratch the surface of removing unneccesary complexity, so we're still paying through the nose for most of the software. Usually it's amortised through so many factors and other users that we can pretend to not notice. For one-offs like this... it suddenly becomes glaringly painful just how wasteful software projects tend to be. On top of that, the military-industrial complex is the world's biggest money waster, so this hundred million seems reasonable compared to their other money wasting projects. But it's still wasteful. Even though this is explicitly aimed at reducing costs. I conclude that's just the pretense, and this is really about pork barrels. Funny, eh.
In an industry that already spends billions of dollars on design and manufacturing of chips, as per the example of $500 million for a single SoC, what are you going to do with a measly $100 million ?
It's about time that such a strategic industry gets revived.
Chip design is dominated by America. There is no need to "revive" it.
Chip manufacturing will still be done in Asia.
DARPA have different requirements for chips than the rest of us. For example, they might not want separate "systems management" circuits.
This is actually a project I've read about in the past so I'll explain. What they are trying to do is make a automatic layout engine for silicon. In effect, it will take your VHDL and turn it into a completed layout that is ready for manufacturing. However, to avoid a massive layout times, they also want to be able to use premade layouts for subsystems. If you consider each subsystem to be a block of object code then the layout engine is a compiler that is connecting your "main.c" up to all the functions already compiled.
It's a really good concept but the laws of physics won't make it an easy task and much like handwritten assembly, it's unlikely to be competitive with manual layouts.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I've been trying to understand what this actually does and after reading the article I still don't understand it!
The name Silicon Compiler is confusing beyond belief; traditional compilers convert programming languages to assembly, so a Silicon Compiler seams like it would convert different assembly languages, so code would run no matter the architecture.
The article seems to mention new ways to wire the different architectures, making me think it's a computer aided architecture design using AI, but then mentioned open sourcing the architecture design.
So I come back to you: What the hell does this "Silicon Compiler" actually do?
Most the innovation does not come from manufacturing. Big risk is what pure research does; some of it seems completely pointless at the time it is being done-- the applications of the gained knowledge are unknown at the time; furthermore, many things are discovered by accident.
This is $$$ put into "future work" areas that companies have little incentive to explore; especially companies on the market who are always under pressure to cut R&D for greater returns for investors.
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As a former lead ASIC designer, I can say this is one of the most ambitious projects likely ever undertaken in EDA. Companies like Cadence, Mentor and Synopsys have been working on these problems for literally decades now. Everyone wants an easy solution for push-button design, but it is hardly that simple. Consider the following:
- Synthesis from RTL-to-gate level
- Functional design rule checks
- Place and route, including clock routing, PLLs/DLLs, etc.
- Timing extraction and static timing analysis
- I/O/SSO and core power
- Internal signal integrity and re-layout
- Test insertion and test vector generation
- Formal verification
- Functional verification
- Packaging and ball-out/bonding, especially with core I/O
- Physical design rule checks / Netlist vs. layout checks
A suite of tools that does all of this costs into the millions of dollars today, and is really a subscription as there are always bugs and improvements to be made. It also assumes physical design rule decks from the silicon vendors that have gone extensive characterization on limits such as minimum feature widths and notch rules can yield to a sufficient level economically, and that the gate and hard IP/mixed IP libraries have been validated. Front end functional design often requires re-architecture due to considerations when physically implementing the chip. All of this, of course, presumes that we don't run into additional phenomena that were irrelevant at larger process nodes (e.g. at ~250nm/180nm, wire delay dominated gate delay, and at 90nm/65nm, RC signal integrity models gave way to RLC, plus power/clock gating, multi-gate finFETs vs. single-gate planar past 22nm, etc.).
A push-button tool would have to take all of this into consideration. But let's face it...as well-intended as this is, you probably need another couple of orders of magnitude of money thrown at this to even begin succeeding under the fundamental assumption you don't have additional phenomena like alternatives to manufacturing. And that's the fundamental catch that is not captured in the article: we are chasing an ever-changing animal called process technology advancement that has created issues for us over the last few decades and likely will continue until we reach the limit of physics as we can manipulated them.
Bottom line: love the idealism, but don't buy into this hype with this piddle of investment.
99 million for patent lawsuits.
DARPA, working on government applications. Patents do not matter.
Have gnu, will travel.
There are still a lot of chip fabs in the U.S., but even if the wafers and dies are made in the U.S., they're going to be shipped overseas for assembly into the final product.
The US does need to keep innovating like this to stay ahead though. China is producing some really competitive chips now, especially for mobile devices (CPUs, cellular modems).
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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Other parts of the package are made overseas due to costs, so it's a matter of shipping more components to the U.S. to assemble the final product and then having to ship that back to Asia again anyways as most computers or other devices (phones, tablets, routers, etc.) are assembled there as well. Add in less expensive labor costs in Asia (and no one wanting to make a large capital investment into robotic assembly lines if they don't have to) and it just makes more sense to finish the assembly in Asia.
he US does need to keep innovating like this to stay ahead though. China is producing some really competitive chips now, especially for mobile devices (CPUs, cellular modems).
It seems very shortsighted for me that the USA has put itself in this situation - because this is a great scenario for China, not so much for he USA. When the USA keeps innovating and China immediately takes the innovation (for example, via laws that force American companies to relinquish the intellectual property, or via straightforward theft) and mass produces it, the money and power go to China. In this pairing, the USA is the weak partner; if China blocks the production of new USA designs, the USA has nothing - and it would take years or tens of years to develop elsewhere a production capacity that could replace China's. If it's the USA that stops providing new designs to China, China will just innovate more slowly, using local research and development; in the meantime it can keep producing and selling products at the current technological level, while the USA is again left with nothing.
Being the producer of stuff means you get paid again and again for the stuff you produce. Being the inventor means being paid maybe once. After you disclose your invention, the producer doesn't need to pay you anymore - unless there is some kind of legal infrastructure, like IP laws, that protect you - but we know how well this works with China.
They often get a lot of bang for the buck because they attract more investment from partners in both academic research and business. That is what the DARPA Grand Challenge projects are all about. Remember the autonomous vehicle race from California to Las Vegas? Or the emergency rescue robot competition? Things like that.
In fact, both of those were "failures". The goals were not met. The robots fell over. No team finished the Mojave race. The prizes were not awarded. But the government got more then it's money's worth. And everyone who participated learned a whole lot. For DARPA that was a good result.
So stop whining about the futility of the project just because you are too short sighted to understand what it is really about. There are plenty of very very smart motivated people who do get it, and they are going to produce some very interesting work. Go back to computer and watch someone else play a video game. It's all you're good for.
Why is Snark Required?
Private industry still trusts its software and the people who code.
The US mil cannot even trust its most secure systems and the contractors that make the new code.
Too many people from outside the USA, cults, faith groups, contractors with split loyalties, contractors open to blackmail are now wondering around very secure projects.
In the past the project would secure the contractors and get to work.
Due to the way contractors are now hired everyone can be security risk and still get a gov/mil job.
The kind of project thats only needed when everything cannot be trusted and once trusted complier problems are now presenting in all other US projects.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Funny thing: I'm a pot-smoking communist sympathizer who thinks national hero Edward Snowden deserves the Medal of Freedom. So I'm pretty sure I would never get a clearance.
But there's no fucking way I would ever sell out my country. No amount of money or blackmail would make me put a back door or other bug in a sensitive military system. Even when I hate my government I still love my country.
So my question is, where the fuck are they getting these contractors? People who somehow DO qualify for a clearance. But are still gonna sell us up the river to the Chinese (or whoever)?
Think of it in terms of a not using the question of a failed clearance not to hire a person anymore.
.... "
A person is not considered on their security risk rather on their ability to make the gov be like the wider US community.
Merit, skill, the question of security, education cannot be used to stop a contractor from getting hired.
Criminals can now ask to work for a government/mil.
People with not real history in the USA get to work on the most sensitive projects.
Contractors can set up a front company with a lawyer, former mil/gov person and a few cleared workers.
As long as they sort the paperwork, anyone can do the contract work globally. That makes the price a bit lower than a real company in the USA.
Do that for a decade and the US gov/mil starts to take in a lot of people who cant be trusted.
A bit like the UK mil/gov did in the 1920-50's. Spies fill the career fairs and too many get in. A quick look over digital criminal state and federal records by a contractors at very best. No search over a persons life, education, politics, friends, family, connections to the USA, university politics.
Re "But are still gonna sell us up the river to the
Spy networks work in a few ways in the USA.
The new instant friend who is perfect and wonderful.
Direct blackmail on a hidden secret.
The search of all past US security clearances by other nations as they now have the files copied. The split loyalty question as a cult, faith, another nations/faith asks a person to give away secrets.
Using a cult, faith group, political group to pass in decades of resumes and get as many people in for later decades in the US government.
That was an East German method. Get as many new graduates in to the West and advance up the ranks over the decades.
No contact or links back and nothing could be tracked. A holiday years later would be the setting to go over results.
A person is an addict, has cash problems, wants more wealth and someone new makes an offer.
The way the US countered that was the long chat down during the polygraph "interview".
All the history of a persons banking, education, politics, spending, friends, addictions, lifestyle was investigated before the interview and then the person was guided to talk about security aspects of their past. All that detail ended up in a digital file.
Such methods then only allow the best of the best in and the US gov/mil starts to be very different from the wider US demographics.
The other test is 2 FBI with accents show up for a chat down and offer cash and a hint that they know about a persons life.
Is that contact reported in detail? Is the cash accepted?
So many random people now have US security clearances the FBI cant keep track.
The only way the USA can counter the spy and faith problem is with more AI, computers, the buddy system and security.
The buddy system says the person working with another person can never be be trusted. As the team size gets larger thats a total lack of trust.
The trust in compilers for gov/mil software is now gone too. Should have hired on merit and only after accepting real security clearances.
The better news is that can all be fixed. Just do what the UK did in the 1970's and security can be restored within a generation.
Good pay and real advancement on merit. Education and knowing everyone has a real security clearance.
The UK ensured a esprit de corp into the 1990's. The US now has the buddy system so everyone is stressed with who they have to work with.
That stress results in lifestyle changes, addictions, deviancies, blackmail, finding "faith" in a cult. Spies wait off base/port/fort/camp ready to be supportive as a new best friend.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Actually AMD already ships the silicon chips to either NY or FL to be packaged. Idk about intel.
Labour costs aren't much cheaper in asia. The win is in logistics.